At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah BakewellMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A lucid and engaging look into existentialism through a semi-biographical telling of the life of Jean-Paul Sartre. The ideas are presented clearly, but it's the people that steal the show (quite appropriately). It is a fantastically provoking read that had me making copious notes, re-reading sections and compulsively writing down reading lists of books and movies.
A lot of it is so powerful because existentialism is so powerful. The ideas it pioneers are shocking and relevant, worth thinking about. The credit for that goes to the Continental philosophers of the 20th century this book draws from. On the other hand, I don't think I want to discount the effort and skill that goes into creating a book such as this. Sarah Bakewell does a wonderful job presenting those ideas. Her interjections and notes make it feel cohesive and tie the whole thing together.
This isn't the definitive guide to existentialism. However, I think it does something better than that. It acts as a doorway into that world, giving you names and places and ideas to explore. It does not seek to be authoritative. It seeks to be inquisitive. Nothing better can be said about a book such as this.
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